Rating: 
Summary: Super Duper Short
Review: I often laugh when I look at some of Gary Paulsen's books--they're like 100 pages long! and tripple spaced! with big letters! it's so short, it's crazy. But, I needed to read a quick book to get some AR (Accelerated Reader) points, and thus, I came across this 'book':Well, it starts out graphically describing how a poor gun-maker dude spends years of work trying to create a perfect gun that shoots with 100% accuracy. He does. However, despite the gun-makers emotional attachment to the gun, he sells it so he can get some cash and start a family.
Thats when the Gun's Story starts to take place, and we briefly follow the lifestyles of those who own this gun from way back in the Revolutionary War to Present Day. Some people may not like the ending, but I saw that it wasn't just there to be 'suspenseful' or 'entertaining' what Paulsen was getting at, is how everybody says "Guns don't kill people, People kill people" and showing how, in this case, that isn't always true. Buy this book? Well, personally, I wouldn't spend much on such a small book, but if your a hardcore Gary Paulsen Fan I think it's something that should definatly be in your collection.
Rating:
Summary: Contemporary Fable
Review: I presumed The Rifle was a children's book. It is not. Paulsen's didacticism starkly overshadows the appeal he creates for the child victim. The "protagonist" is the weapon. The audience is general.
The Rifle is a contemporary fable. For entertainment, there are extraordinary elements of historical fiction and information, however, Paulsen's main purpose was to comment. His subject remains controversial-witness the host of passionate, intolerant reviews here that reveal how powerful the writing is. Compelling and riveting, The Rifle is drama of the highest caliber (no pun intended). The harshest critics are blinded by their extremism in acknowledging Paulsen's gift.
Paulsen too was caught up in a time of fervor over the Waco cult suicides and the histrionics of the NRA. No doubt he smirked in contriving a contradiction to "people kill people-not guns." The smirking is made subtle with discourse on gun technology and slips only once to become more sarcastic in reference to a fairly tacky stereotype of Elvis devotees. Besides drama, perhaps the best feature of the writing was to portray the unseemly and naïve lifestyle and perspective of today's anarchist.
How ironic it was for me at Christmas to pick up this book from my idle stack of children's books waiting to be read and to encounter such provocative writing with a holiday tragedy. I notice the book is now "out of print." That's unfortunate. It's an incredible piece of good writing.
Mr. Paulsen, might you today be at work on a fable about our obsession with car racing? Ha!
Rating: 
Summary: The Rifle
Review: I read the book the Rifle and did not enjoy it very much. I beleive Gary Paulsen has written many better books than this one. I read the book and was waiting for a climax the whole book but just never seemed to happen. Although I thuoght the beginging was ver interseting the rest of the book sort of dragged out the entire time. If you plan to read this book dont come in with too high of expectations but could be interesting to some people but for me it was not. Good Luck with it and have a fun time reading.
Rating:
Summary: Really Great Book
Review: I really loved this book, personally. However, I interpret it a bit differently than a few of the other reviewers on this site: I am not a member of the anit-handgun society at all - quite the contrary. I am the daughter of an avid hunter. The first thing my father taught me about firearms was this: respect the gun. I am quite familiar with muzzleloading rifles, though not the flintlock kind. If you really think about what Paulsen is trying to say, it's not that the gun had a mind of its own or was "evil" or even tried to kill the boy. His message was just what I said above: because they are weapons, guns should be respected. It was because of the foolishness of the people that held the gun that the child was killed. They should have checked the gun to see if it was loaded. That's another thing my father taught me: always treat a gun as if it's loaded, even if you know for fact it's not. If the owner of the rifle had done so, he would not have put it by the fire and the boy would not have died. It was, indirectly, the people who killed the boy, not the gun. A gun is not a living thing, and it cannot think.
Rating: 
Summary: "Waiting"? Give me a break.
Review: I'd like to write a little more on this book, riddled with far too many inaccuracies. Despite what Paulsen says about the powder staying dry as a result of oil hardening in the vent (incorrectly called a touchhole in the novel), moisture would still come in via the rifled grooves. Remember that unless you're firing a hexagonal bullet (not designed until the 1850's), there is still space between the bullet and the rifled groove. Another thing Paulsen says about muzzloading rifles that is incorrect is that "the only safe way to check whether a muzzleloader loaded or not is to know how far the ramord sticks out (about 2 inches) when the gun is loaded". I found out first hand that this is incorrect. The way to know whether an old muzzleloader is loaded or not is to first stick the ramrod down the barrel, and then line up the ramrod with the end of the breech outside of the rifle. If the end of the ramrod is in the same place it was while it was in the barrel, the gun is unloaded. If about an inch higher, the gun is loaded. A very simple technique. Also, the fact that "Tilson" has the gun in his closet "waiting" is ridiculous. If he could disassemble and clean a 224-year old flintlock rifle, then he would know if and when it was loaded or not. As for portraying Tim as a person who believed that the men of the 7th Cavalry "died with their boots on", it's true! Custer was a blithering idiot who misled his men. And the men knew that the Indians wouldn't let them surrender (book talks about US soldiers trying to surrender; simply made up). Several soldiers, in fact, were found after the battle with .32-30 bullets in their brains--self-inclicted wounds. They'd rather shoot themselves than be tortured and be hacked to pieces (the Lakota-Sioux even today admit to doing this to captured prisoners). Paulsen also gave the impression that a pro-gun person like myself would only care if a hero died in battle. I don't know one person in the local NRA, of which I'm a member, that doesn't think that General John Buford, a Union Cavalry commander during the Civil War, is a hero. He probably saved the United States from shattering when his regiment held off wave after wave of Confederate soldiers who would've marched on Washington if they defeated General Buford at the Battle of Gettysburg. He died during the war of disease that was rampant in Army camps. IMHO, the point of this book is to prove that guns are abominations, no matter how "sweet", and that guns (which are inanimate objects) are somehow evil and go off by themselves. Aside from the point that the gun going off would be physically impossible due to inescapably wet and degraded powder and a ball turned to lead oxide and rusted to the barrel, I just think Paulsen has an axe to grind with guns, and just hates them. If you want to learn the real stories, take your kids to the West Point Museum, buy them a history book about sharpshooters in the Revolution, or maybe take them shooting with an old muzzleloader, as opposed to reading this piece of closed-minded hatred.
Rating:
Summary: Not the greatest
Review: I'm not a big gun fan, and I think this book had a terrible ending. The guy died!
Rating: 
Summary: A Short One, But A Good, By Paulsen
Review: If you like books by Gary Paulsen and if you don't like to read long novels here is one that i recommend you to read, The Rifle. This book talks about the history of an old rifle. It follows the rifles history from when it was first made to the end. When you read it you will find out what the rifle goes through and also find out that it makes it trough a war. So if you are looking for a Gary Paulsen book and don't have a lot of time to read it, you definitely need to read The Rilfe. The next time you check out a book remember The Rifle by Gary Paulsen!
Rating:
Summary: "the rifle sits in the gun cabinet. Waiting."
Review: Of all the anti-gun nonsense I have ever read, this short novel is by far the worst. This is a book about a mystical gun with mystical powers that wants to kill and "waits" to kill. Never mind that we are talking about a 220 year old flintlock here. It is a gun and guns are evil and they will kill because guns must kill. Paulsen tries hard to undersand guns so that he can accuse them of, essentially, being possessed by evilness but he does not understand them. He attributes mystical powers to the flintlock in question. Though it is a .40 caliber "pea shooter", it can fire with tremendous accuracy and impart killing energy at distances of 400 yards. It can even fire itself when it sees the opportunity to shoot a young, innocent boy in the head. And finally, it knows to "wait" for the opportunity to kill again! Indeed, it knows to plan for just such an opportunity. To Paulsen, the problem with guns is not who is using them. The problem is the inherent evilness of guns themselves. This book is a fine example of how the mindless, knee jerk, anti-gun aspect of our society thinks. Then we wonder how nonsence becomes law!
Rating:
Summary: Paulsen's books speak loud & clear to everyone
Review: Paulsen writes wonderful stories about teen boys overcoming hardships in physically and emotionally challenging situations. In The Rifle there is a major change. The main character is not a boy at all, but a rifle. Not an ordinary, modern one. This is a revolutionary-war-era handmade "sweet" gun. Its making is described as carefully as the gun itself was made. Its history is documented up to 1993, when the plot twists... Another sure fire winner from Paulsen just waiting to be read a loud. It can easily spark discussion on gun control, and the right to bear arms if you need a catalyst.
Rating:
Summary: Rifle
Review: Rifle
This was a fun-filled adventure book that was about a perfectly made rifle. I liked this book since it told about the history of a rifle and at the same time it described emotions towards the rifle. Since certain consequences come with the gun, it makes the book a lot better and makes you attached to it. The owners of the rifle also have an obsession with the gun which gives the book a good twist when they give the gun away. Overall this book was a well-written story and I liked it a lot.
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